In 1775, the physician and botanist William Withering (1741-99) was
informed of a folk cure for dropsy that had as its active
ingredient the plant foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Ten years
later, after thorough trials on more than 150 patients, Withering
published this monograph on the medicinal applications of the
plant, not least to keep less experienced doctors from
administering it to patients without the proper caution, given the
plant's toxicity. Withering was the first doctor to employ foxglove
as a remedy for congestive heart failure, which is now the primary
disease treated by foxglove-derived pharmaceuticals, and the
results from his trials broadly reflect those produced by modern
physicians. Withering's first major publication, A Botanical
Arrangement of All the Vegetables Naturally Growing in Great
Britain (1776), which includes observations on the medicinal
applications of British plants, is also reissued in this series.
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